Christmas Party Invitations
by Lyra Anna Ly
Summary: Finally, the Zhao Christmas Party is approaching, and Emma can only think of a few people she wants to give the first invitations to. After all, her cousin and their family always came first. A certain announcement being made was not how she had wanted this to go though, and Kyo was being no help at the moment. An AI Football GGO Fanfiction; Part of the Emma collection.


**It's been a while, huh? Sorry about that, but at least this will hopefully be a testament to how much my style and world building has gone. Originally, I thought this was going to be to short to be broken into two parts, but It is honestly one of the longest I have made yet for the Emma series, and even ended up tying into another story that I already have (Which I'm really glad I posted first). **

Part of the AI Football GGO Community, and a big thanks to the other members who honestly are such a big help to my inspiration and a small but wonderful Community that has grown so fast in such a short amount of time honestly. Here's to hoping we get our own section in Anime/Manga soon.

* * *

Christmas Party Invitations

Emberlyn Zhao was not like your average 13-year-old. She'd been through quite a bit in her first years of life but still had her cousins; who she was honestly so thankful for and didn't know what she would do without.

So of course, Karl was one of the first people to get his invitation to the yearly Zhao Christmas Party, hand delivered by Emma the day they arrived. It was one of the few times a year that Emma was so excited, she ran over to his house, instead of waiting for him to be at Andy's.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been there this time around.

"Sorry hun, you just missed him." Uncle Maine said as he opened the door to let the young girl in anyways. "He just left to go practice with his football team. Lila's just taken him."

Lila was Uncle Maine's wife, Karl's mother and a wonderful person altogether, Emma loved her Aunt so much. The elder worked hard to build up her own business, but was nowhere near as self-centered as her parents, Lila knew the value of her child's future and the cost of making it in the world. Even still, and the part that dazzled Emma the most, her Aunt knew that family came first.

"Well that's fine, I can call him and let him know they're here." Emma said, pulling an envelope out of her pocket and handing it off to her uncle. "This one's yours, Uncle Maine."

"Well thank you, Emma." Maine said, taking the envelope from the girl as she finally walked inside the house, allowing the elder to close the door. "Feel free to make yourself at home, you know where everything is already."

"Thank you!" Emma called back, already heading upstairs to her cousins room so that she could put her things down. After a minute, she pulled out her phone and dialed the number of her cousin. It rung once… twice… three times…

"Hello?" Her cousin answered, and she could tell he was already with his friends from the sound of all the others questioning him in the background.

"Did you seriously just answer your phone without looking at the caller ID?" She asked her cousin, who took a minute to answer his teammates questions of who it was.

"Well there's really only so many people that would call me in the middle of practice." Her cousin said, a hint of irritation lacing his voice. Emma let out a huff, letting her voice raise in pitch just enough to make it sound as if she were actually upset.

"Well there's no need to yell at your favorite little cousin, now is there? Besides, I had something exciting to tell you."

"Who said you were my favorite little cousin?" Karl deadpanned. Emma blinked, her actions stilling for a second.

"Emma?" Karl asked, and the younger girl hung up the phone in response.

"Well would you look at that, I just remembered why we don't get along the other three-hundred sixty-four other days of the year." Emma said to herself as she picked up her bag, preparing to leave. Her phone rang again as she opened the door to leave her cousins room, and she watched as a picture of her best friend lit up on the screen, and answered the call as she walked down the stairs.

"Kitty-Cat, it's a miracle!" Was the first thing she said, immediately followed by "I just remembered why Karl and I only get along two days a year, but me and Maria are just fine all year."

"What?"

"Karl's a self-centered little brat." Emma said easily, sticking her head into the living room to wish her Uncle farewell. "Bye Uncle Maine, hope to see you at the party."

"WAIT, The invitations are done!?" Karl asked, and Emma only now acknowledged that Cat had put the phone on speaker for the whole team.

"Oh hey, the self-centered brat. How's life?" Emma said, her tone cold as she addressed his presence.

"Listen here you little…" Karl managed to get out before Cat interrupted the cousins little squabble.

"Invitation for what, exactly?" She asked, causing both of their moods to shift almost automatically.

"For the Zhao Christmas Party!" They said together, and Emma laughed on her end, eyes lighting up as she skipped down the street, happy to talk about her family tradition.

"We have it every year, one of the biggest celebrations that the Zhao family throws. Like a small get together and reunion for all the families and rich heirs and heiresses to get together while their parents and them catch up. It usually results in the parents watching their children to see who they seem compatible with before chatting and drinking, and taking jabs at one another for anything they happen to do wrong, or any bad apples in the pack. Karl comes for the food though, and it's the perfect opportunity to get back at my parents once a year. The worse I act at the party, the more reluctant they are to bring me next year. Also, this could be your chance to meet Kyo, again."

"Kyo's family is coming?" Karl asked, surprised but excited.

"Of course! After the… you know what… they decided it would be a great Idea to meet with his whole family again."

"...Don't you think that seems a little suspicious?"

"Not really. I think it would be worse for me if they hadn't told us the family was coming. Anyways, I have your invite with me, so come to Andy's to pick it up later, okay?"

"Alright!" Karl cheered. "I'll see ya later then. Bye, Emma."

"Later!" Emma said, hanging up the phone as she made her way over to their Aunts house, blissfully unaware of the conversation going on with her cousin and their friends.

* * *

"Wait, what did she mean by that?" Cat asked the moment the little girl had hung up, turning to the one person who would know more about her best friends personal life than her.

"By what?" Karl asked, genuinely confused as he looked towards the self-proclaimed ream manager, only to realize that the whole team was waiting for him to explain something.

"When she said the thing about the 'you know what'?" Cat confirmed, and Karl caught Timmy looking back at Titan. He'd almost forgotten that only two of them had been told what was happening with Emma and Maria's families.

"If Emma wanted you all to know, she would have already told you." Karl said, turning his own attention back to his player, Satelite.

"Timmy, do you know what's happening?" Shawn asked, having also caught the movement. Karl only glanced in the boy's direction, knowing that he wouldn't spill any of Emma's secrets unless she gave them the okay.

"Huh?" Timmy questioned, looking up once more and locking eyes with Karl briefly, before looking at Shawn.

"With Emma, do you know?" Shawn clarified, and Timmy noticed the other barefoot captain watching him closely, head tilted down, but still clearly interested.

"You should ask Emma yourself." Timmy suggested, going back to his player once more. "You should ask her. I can't tell you."

"But you do know." Isaac stated, directing Myth to practice shooting past Shadow without using his roaring flamestrike. Shawn directed Shadow back to the goal, telling Nucleus to set up defense, and asking Cat to have Swift play offence. Karl called Satellite to be Myths defence, and Timmy directed Titan to goalie.

"Yeah…" Timmy answered reluctantly, casting a Glance to Cat to help him out, but it seemed like she didn't know either. Cat sighed, but pulled out her cell phone and dialed her best friend once more. Emma answered immediately, and Cat put the phone on speaker.

"Sorry Cat, I forgot to mention I have invites for the rest of the team too." Emma said, and Cat could have sworn she heard a voice in the background, but she couldn't hear what they said. She did catch the younger girls voice when she answered though. "Cat's my best friend… hang on."

There was a distinct muffling as Emma pulled the phone away and put it on speaker, and Cat herd the voice clearly this time.

"You said the rest of the team though..?" The very clearly male voice stated.

"She's on a GGO team with my cousin and the others." Emma said, and Cat could imagine her waving the man off.

"The others being?" The voice said once more, this time teasingly. "Is you-know-who on the team?"

"Shut up, Kyo." Emma said after a moment, and Cat laughed.

"The team is all listening, lover boy." Cat called to her friend and the boy who she now knew she had heard of before. "The other members are Shawn, Isaac, and Timmy."

"Oh, the rich kid, the other one, and the old friend." Kyo sad, emphasising the word in a way that Cat was sure meant that Emma was being teased by the friend she had recently been catching up with, which was confirmed with her next statement.

"Shut up, Kyo." Emma whisper yelled.

"So Emma, what's up with the whole you-know-what?" Cat asked, and there was a bit of silence on the other end, followed by a hushed bickering conversation in the background.

"You were on speaker in the last conversation too, remember?" Karl said, as if he could hear what they were saying. The line went quiet again, but the voices resumed quicker this time, and Cat heard Emma sigh before answering loud enough for all of them to hear.

"My parents will probably announce it anyways, so I guess it would be better to tell them on our own terms."

"Whatever you feel is best." Kyo answered. "I won't stop you if you do, but what if they don't?"

"Then it could literally pop out of the blue. Our parents are great at covering up certain things, but they love to make huge announcements like that."

"Alright then." Kyo conceded, and Emma turned her attention back to them.

"Everyone can come over to Andy's after your practice, and I'll tell you then, as well as properly introducing Kyo."

"Wait, seriously? After all that, you're still not even gonna tell us."

"Not right now. Everyone come over after practice, it's a long story." Emma answered. "And let me talk to Karl, not on speaker this time."

Cat hesitated, but passed the phone over to the girls cousin, who took her off speaker. "What's up, Em?"

There was a muffled conversation from the other side of the phone, and Karl smiled a little sadly at what she had said. "Of course I didn't. No matter what, I'm still your cousin, and we do for family… Yeah, Timmy knows a little about it… You're gonna tell them the full thing then?... Whatever you say. You want me to come over now?... Alright, See ya, Emma."

With that, the buy hung up the phone and handed it back to Cat, easily going back to the game without another word on the matter. After a minute of no one really playing the game, the by sighed and called Satellite back, making sure everything was in order before making his way to the door. "Well come on then. If we aren't gonna play, then we might as well go here that story."

The other members quickly made sure that all of their members were back and ready to be moved, before rushing out behind the boy. Timmy laughed at the irritated tone Karl had used, but followed them all anyways. If no one else could focus, there was no real need to be there in the first place, so he made his exit immediately following the boy.

"Hey, do you think she'll let us play that game again?" Timmy asked curiously, and a grin lit up Karls features as he remembered a very special Zhao Christmas Party game the four of them used to play.

Once Cat had started coming, Emma had stopped participating, but the youngest had always been the one factor that made it the most fun.

"She promised we would be able to, so I don't see why not. I think she might be joining us again this year." Timmy hummed contentedly, as the others caught up with the two just before they walked out the door.

"Maybe she'll be able to convince Kyo to help us out." Karl chuckled at the thought.

"If he still has the guts and potential. Guess we'll se in a bit, though."

* * *

Emma and Kyo were in the kitchen when the others made it to Andy's house, symbolized by the tell-tale sign of her cousins knocking followed his yelling at Emma for one hing or another. This time it was for causing his GGO Football practice to be cut short. The problem with timing, and the irony of his being here at that certain time was not lost on her, and Kyo laughed at the face she made as she realized she couldn't exactly walk over there and answer the door in her current state.

The two hadn't been left alone for a long period of time, but Emma had decided she wanted to make a cake; which had turned into Kyo wanting cake, and somehow the whole thing had morphed into them playing party music in the kitchen while dancing around covered in flour that either Emma had thrown at Kyo in an attempt to get him to stop trying to eat the cake batter before she even had the cake in the oven, or Kyo had thrown at Emma in retaliation for the act.

Somehow, one of the two had managed to get hold of one of the leftover eggs and cracked it over the other's head, and the one covered in egg had managed to over the other in egg as well. If she were to guess, she would have to think that Kyo had started the egg portion of the fight, as she was the one with parts of an eggshell in her hair.

"I think your cousin is calling you~!" Kyo teased, but shut-up as she shoved an apple from the counter in his mouth. The boy just shrugged, taking a bite and chewing it as she glared at him for another moment before resigning herself to opening the door the way she was.

There was a slight dragging in her feet as she made her way up to the door, yelling at her cousin that she was coming.

"What's up?" She asked as she lent against the doorframe.

"You know good and well what's up missy." Karl said, sounding cross with her, but smiling all the same. "What happened to you and lover boy?"

Emma raised an eyebrow at her cousins nickname for her fiance, before turning to see that he had followed her, and was now standing a small bit behind her, boh still covered in the mess they had made of the ingredients. With a slight smirk, Emma turned back to her cousin before leading back into Kyo, who immediately put his arm around her, so she wouldn't fall backwards.

"We made cake." She answered easily, and Kyo's laughter followed immediately afterwards. The movement against her back made Emma just a little more self conscious, feeling the muscles that were hidden by his shirt. She tried to force the way her heart sped up a bit away, focussing on the smile she sent the boy, who was just tall enough to look down at the movement and see her face, covered in flour and egg. It was then that he turned back to the girls cousin, who was now looking between the two of them like he saw something different in his cousin.

"There was a small miss-happ with a bit of exploding flour." Kyo said, and Emma's smile faded into a grimmance.

"And egg." Emma commented, brushing some of the eggshell pieces out of her hair. A harsh beeping came from the kitchen, causing both to look back at the door they had just come out of as the timer continued to blare. "Speaking of Cake, sounds like it's done." Emma commented, getting a hum of approval from the redhead behind her.

"You guys want any?" Kyo asked as she walked back in to pull it out before it burned. Kyo opened the door a bit more, allowing the team to come in and motioning for them to have a seat. "I think I'll leave Emma to frost it this time, don't want anything else exploding, you know?"

"Yeah…" Karl said, glancing at Timmy before sizing up Kyo, who did the same upon noticing his look.

"So, you're the infamous Karl that Emma keeps talking about? You look familiar, Chilli Pepper."

"Don't call me that!" Karl growled out. Kyo smirked at the reaction to the nickname he had given the boy back when he was first introduced to him all those years ago.

"Stupid Akane. Don't bully my cousin." Emma said as she came back out, her face no longer covered in flour, but her arms and hair not having been cleaned yet. "I'm gonna go try and get some more flour off me, wanna join?"

"Whatever you want, my lady." Kyo answered, following the girl into the bathroom a little ways down the hall. Emma at least left the door open enough that they would know nothing was happening.

Karl huffed as the boy disappeared with his cousin, but sat down with the others anyways, chomping angrily on a slice of chocolate cake she had brought out for him. Even Timmy held an annoyed expression, especially when he heard Emma's laughter start to carry down the hallway.

Cat glanced between the two for a moment, before turning her attention to Isaac, who wasn't even touching his cake yet. To the untrained eye, he looked to be simply relaxing, completely unconcerned with whatever was happening in the back. The oldest of team barefoot knew better though, knew to be careful when watching him simply because he could look and act as if it didn't bother him, but his jaw clenched just a bit more, and his hands formed tighter fists.

Two minutes later, which was much to long in all the team members opinions, Kyo and Emma finally emerged from the bathroom (the former trying to dry his hair with a towel that already had more water on it then Cat had thought his hair could safely hold). Kyo leaned over to whisper something in her ear that caused Emma shoved him back as her face turned dangerously red, which in turn set Kyo into a bit of a laughing fit as Emma took a seat next to her cousin.

"You alright, Em?" Isaac asked, using the nickname they had all heard Karl use so many times. Kyo, who had gone to sit on the arm of the couch beside the girl and was taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, had yet another laughing fit that rendered the breathing practice useless. Emma shoved him onto the floor.

"I'm fine. My fiance, however, is a jerk." She said, not really thinking to much about what she said.

_One. Two. Three…_

"EEEHHH?!" _And there go all the members of team barefoot, except my cousin and Timmy._

"Wait, fiance?" Cat said, having recovered first from the state of shock that had the others staring slack jawed between the two.

"Yeah, fiance." Karl said, glaring at the boy as he picked himself up off the floor from the third fit of boisterous laughter. "You could at least try to keep a handle on yourself, you know?"

"Please?" Emma said, glancing down at the boy. "A little self-control can go a long way with conversations like this."

"Sorry princess, but you have to admit, the reactions are priceless." Kyo commented before quickly getting a hold of himself at Emberlyn's glare, reminding himself of the many lessons he'd been taught in holding his tongue. The Zhao girls expression softened slightly as his face took on the blank expression that they had been taught before learning how to put on an alarmingly realistic smile.

"Yes, Kyo and I have been thrown into an arranged marriage by our families." Emma said, putting up her own mask of indifference. A mask that often proved to give even the most observant of people a hard time deciphering the emotions behind it, and Cat could see how different it was from any of the rest of them. Emma left almost no clues as to how she was truly taking the news, but Karl had certainly been a big help with his way of acting the past few weeks.

"That's why you've been so worried about her, right?" Isaac asked, turning to Karl as the boy let his own expression show clearly his annoyance at the fact.

"Part of the reason, yeah. Anyways, moving on for a moment." Karl said, and Emma glanced at him from the corner of her eye, as he turned to his cousin. "Invitations?"

A smirk made itself prominent at her face as she left the room, going back to what they assumed was her room when she stayed at her aunts house, the girl quickly disappearing upstairs. Attention immediately switched back to Kyo, who was now sitting quietly on the arm of the chair and reading through a book that had been near him. At this realisation, the others took a quick glance around, noticing all the finer details of the room.

It was quite spacious but had a nice touch of personality; the worn dark parchment colored wall said enough about that. There was a small fireplace a bit behind the faded red couch that was seating (in order from left to right in their perspective) Shawn, Cat, Isaac, and Timmy, the other couch holing Karl (who sat himself right in the middle), Emma's now empty spot, and Kyo (Though he was not actually on a seat). A dark umber colored coffee table was placed in between the two couches, three books resting on it's surface: _Of Ancient Times_ by Mathew Morino, _Class and Etiquette of the most Prestigious Families_ by Sources United, and _Insanity's Kiss_ by Maria Zhao. Cat recalled Emma telling her about her other cousin having published the first book in her series, _Insanity_, and that the young girl was suppose to help her cousin with the second book, which appeared to be what Kyo was reading.

"Is that an advanced readers copy of _Cure For Insanity_?"

"Yes." Kyo answered simply, flipping to the next page. "Maria always sends Emma a copy before It's released, and she always finishes it within a week. Just can't put it down sometimes."

"Well it's interesting." Emma said, alerting the others to her arrival. She was now carrying a small tote on her arm, fishing around in the bag to find something or another. A content hum left her as she pulled out a mint green envelope from the bag, the name Karl written in cursive on the front. With a very Christmas like smile, she handed the envelope to the boy, who's face lit up as if it really were Christmas and she had given him the best gift ever.

"You're participating in the game this time around, right?" Karl asked, and Emma nodded proudly.

"Who knows, we might get ourselves into the same situation we were in the first time we played. Especially with Kyo helping out." Emma commented, and Karls smile turned even wider.

"Well what do ya know, he might just be a more promising Cousin in law than I thought."

"I wouldn't say that." Kyo said, closing the book with his finger between the pages to open it back up again. "If our plan ends up working, I might not even end up as your cousin in law."

"You mean you figured something out?" Karl asked, honestly just as surprised as he rest, who were listening intently to the conversation.

"Maybe." Emma said, not giving away too much as she pulled out four more invites and handed them out to the members of team Barefoot. "Each envelope has two tickets, you and a plus one of your choosing. Shawn, your parents are sure to get their own, so be prepared for that. Now, as for that story…"

* * *

See -_ Mrs. What-Now?_ On my page (or the AI Football GGO Community) for the story, and get ready for the wonderful story of what exactly happened during the Christmas party soon. (Sorry for the shameless promotion, but this story took a lot of time and effort to make, so I would rather have you look back at that one.)


End file.
